National Theatre Live: The Deep Blue Sea

This devastating masterpiece features one of the most complex and dynamic female roles of contemporary drama. Set in a West London flat during 1952, a woman named Hester Collyer is discovered by her neighbours after a failed suicide attempt.

Slowly, details of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begin to emerge. As this happens, a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion is created. Behind the delicate veneer of post-war civility burns a brutal sense of longing and loss.